1. Book design
2. Celebrations
3. Community
4. Domestic life
5. History
6. Isolation
7. Social life and customs
8. Travel

Jane Jolly is an experienced primary school teacher who knows that trains will fascinate children. The Tea and Sugar train is a fascinating piece of Australian history. For 81 years, from 1915 to 1996, the Tea and Sugar Train travelled by rail from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie once a week, serving the settlements along the transcontinental railway and the Nullarbor Plain. Without shops or services for people living in these settlements, the train became their lifeline for food, banking, medical facilities and even a theatrette. For children, the most exciting moment was the first Thursday of December every year, when Father Christmas appeared with a present for every child.

Jane Jolly’s expert read aloud text effectively snares young readers with its sense of excitement. Young Kathleen, through whose eyes we experience the train’s arrival, sees Father Christmas with his ‘white beard blinding’ and his ‘clothes so Christmas red’.

The story is based on historical fact. The rich language captures daily lives and brings time and place alive. As the train arrives, people ‘emerged from their tin castles, cheering and calling out across the shimmering landscape’. The rich word imagery perfectly complements Robert Ingpen’s highly realistic artwork. Seven fold out artworks capture the intricate details of the landscape, houses and people’s daily activities. The fold outs alternate between soft pencil sketches and softly coloured realistic art. These capture train interiors, the environment, houses, people and their daily lives. At the story’s end is the National Library offers extra factual details. These include historical photographs of the trains and their interiors, advertised products, the isolated settings and daily activities.

‘Tea and Sugar Christmas’ was an Honour Book in the CBCA Eve Pownall Awards in 2015 and in that same year it won the Museums Australia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards for publications produced in cultural institutions.

1. Teachers’ Notes – Pegi Williams Book Shop available as a pdf https://www.pegiwilliams.com.au/pdfs/teachernotes/9780642278630.pdf
2. Kids’ Book Review: ‘Tea and Sugar Christmas’ reviewed by Tania McCartney, 16 December 2014 http://www.kids-bookreview.com/2014/12/review-tea-and-sugar-christmas.html
3. Reading Time review by Margot Hillel of ‘Wonderlands: the Illustration art of Robert Ingpen’, 30 November 2016 http://readingtime.com.au/wonderlands-illustration-art-robert-ingpen/
4. Reading Time article ‘CBCA Lifetime Achievement Award – Acceptance Speech by Robert Ingpen AM’, 1 September 2016 http://readingtime.com.au/cbca-lifetime-achievement-award-acceptance-speech-robert-ingpen/
5. ABC Local radio article by Ashley Walsh about the Tea and Sugar Train, 28 June 2009 https://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/06/27/2607030.htm
6. National Film and Sound Archive ‘Tea and Sugar Train’ Documentary made by the Commonwealth Film Unit in 1954 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vAh-p0-cPA